Uncategorized

2011-12 Junior College Men’s Basketball Profile: Casper College

The Casper College Thunderbirds are off to an inauspicious start to Region IX North Sub-region play.

The Thunderbirds, who began the 2010-11 season ranked 14^th in the NJCAA national poll, are currently 8-4 overall and 0-2 in conference play. CC has lost two straight games with both losses coming against North Sub-region foes.

In their first conference game on December 7, the Thunderbirds fell to Western Wyoming Community College 72-71. CC held a 38-33 lead at halftime. The Thunderbirds had a chance to either tie or take the lead after Western Wyoming hit a pair of free-throws to increase their lead to five points with :34 seconds left in the game. However, CC’s redshirt freshman Darrius Curry was only able to score a couple of two-point baskets with the final bucket coming with :02 remaining.

Curry, 9 of 21 from the field, led the Thunderbirds with 21 points and also grabbed eight rebounds. Freshman Remi Dibo contributed 14 points and 8 rebounds while sophomore Denzel Douglas collected a double-double (11 points, 11 rebounds).

In their other conference game, CC dropped a 83-71 decision to Central Wyoming College on December 10. The Thunderbirds got off to a slow start and trailed 45-33 at halftime. CC was unable to make any headway in the second half as both teams put up 38 points apiece.

For the game, the Thunderbirds were outshot (61% to 33.3%) and outrebounded (35-24). CC also only connected on 6 of their 22 shots beyond the arc and was 25 of 33 from the charity stripe. The Thunderbirds did win the turnover battle as they forced 24 turnovers and committed 14 turnovers.

Douglas, 6 of 10 from the field, led the way with 21 points while Dibo, 5 of 8 from the field, contributed 16 points and 4 boards. Sophomore Deninson Burquilos added 10 points and 4 rebounds with three coming on the offensive end.

The players

CC is a veteran team as they have 11 sophomores or redshirt freshmen on the squad. The Thunderbirds returned six players including three starters from the 2010-11 team that went 23-10.

CC also added four transfer players with three coming from NCAA Division I schools. These transfer players are Curry (West Virginia), Tyler Reynolds (Farleigh Dickinson), Dominique Lee (Utah) and Jerold Brooks (College of Southern Idaho).

Other team news:

- Casper College is located in Casper, Wyo.

- The Thunderbirds have posted an overall record of 1272-685 in their 66-year history. CC has won 12 Region IX championships and has seven top-10 NJCAA national tournament finishes.

- Fourth-year head coach Joel Davidson is 68-42 during his tenure at CC. The Thunderbirds, who are 7-1 at home in 2011-12, have also lost only four games at home during Davidson’s tenure.

- CC reached the semifinals of the Region IX tournament in 2010-11.

- Region IX consists of teams from Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana.

Daniel Benjamin coached small college basketball for two years.

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

Article source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/sports/rss//SIG=11mbh3h8l/*http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=ycn-10703997

2011-12 Junior College Men’s Basketball Profile: Mt. San Jacinto College

The Mt. San Jacinto College Eagles, currently ranked fourth in the California Community College Athletic Association state poll, are seeking a return trip to the Elite Eight in 2011-2012.

MSJC is off to a solid 10-3 start to the 2011-12 season. Since dropping two of their first three games, the Eagles have won 9 of their last 10 games including three in a row. MSJC’s three losses have come against the state’s number one-ranked team Citrus College (89-86), Southwestern College (75-73) and eighth-ranked Antelope Valley College (78-72). The Eagles’ biggest win of the season was a 20-point win (85-65) over sixth-ranked Yuba College in the Palomar Thanksgiving tournament.

MSJC, returned two players from the 2010-11 squad, began the season ranked eighth in the state. The returning players are PG Alex Wilson and SG Taylor Wilson. C Greg Dixon, a member of the 2009-10 team, also returns after a one-year hiatus. In addition, head coach Patrick Springer brought in three transfers. The three transfers are SG Anthony Dees (Campbell), F Jamar Cannon (College of the Desert) and F Josh Gouch (Columbus St.).

Saddleback tournament

MSJC won their second tournament of the year on December 17. The Eagles opened up the Saddleback Tournament with a 67-51 over Cypress College on December 15. MSJC forged ahead late in the first half to grab a 32-26 halftime lead. The Eagles extended their lead in the second half enabling Springer to insert all 15 of his players into the game.

Gouch led a balanced attack for MSJC with 14 points. Dees was the only other Eagle player to hit double-figures as he contributed 11 points. MSJC also had five players score at least six points including Dixon, who collected 13 rebounds to go along with his six points.

The Eagles then defeated Long Beach City 69-66 in the semifinals on December 16. Freshman Montreal Harris led the way with 18 points and 8 rebounds. Gouch added 9 points while Dixon again pulled down double-digit rebounds (12) to go along with his six points.

With the victory over Long Beach, MSJC advanced to the title game against 12^th-ranked El Camino College. The Eagles defeated El Camino 69-66 in a tough hard fought game. Harris, 18 points and 9 rebounds, once again led the Eagles though MSJC also got a solid performance out of Dees, who chipped in with 16 points. Harris was named the tournament MVP while Dees was named to the all-tournament team.

Other team news:

- MSJC is located in San Jacinto, Calif.

- The 2010-11 Eagles, 22-9, reached the Elite-Eight for the first time since 1999.

- Three players from the 2010-11 team transferred to four-year universities. These players were Dakota Downs (Concordia University), Eric Lawton (Arkansas- Little Rock) and Zach Ngawaka (BYU).

- Springer, who has compiled a 183-82 record at MSJC, is in his ninth season. The 2010-11 team was Springer’s fourth consecutive team to reach the 20-win plateau.

Daniel Benjamin coached small college basketball for two years.

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

Article source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/sports/rss//SIG=11m730135/*http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=ycn-10772643

PRINCETON: University ups annual contributions

» Search News

Article source: http://centraljersey.com/articles/2011/12/31/the_princeton_packet/news/doc4ef3a2e6a147f442354408.txt

Harper College student working on NASA project

Some might say that the sky’s the limit when it comes to education, and that couldn’t be more true for Krysti Scotti.

In just two years’ time, the 30-year-old married mother of two will have made the leap from contemplating getting her college degree to conducting science experiments for NASA on a microgravity aircraft.

How to help the team

Illumi-Nation, the only team made up of community college students selected for NASA’s 2012 Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program, needs to raise nearly $25,000. The money will fund outreach event supplies, experiment materials and travel expenses. For information on becoming a sponsor, visit Illumi-Nation.net.

“I’ve waited so long to be able to go back to school and focus on it since I value education so much more now,” Scotti said. “I’m having so much fun just learning.”

This June, the Harper College student will head to Johnson Space Center in Houston, don a flight suit and take to the skies as part of NASA’s Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program.

Of the 14 undergraduate research teams selected to take part in the Microgravity University program, the North Aurora resident’s crew is the only one made up of community college students. The nine-person team, called Illumi-Nation, hails from seven different states.

“We’re kind of the underdogs, because a lot of these other schools like MIT and Yale compete every year and have a ton of money and support,” Scotti said. “But that only motivates me.”

Scotti, who also works full time in Oswego and next week starts class at Northwestern University in Evanston, said each team proposes, designs, fabricates, flies and then evaluates its own reduced gravity experiment over a six-month period.

But the highlight, of course, is the flight.

Known widely as the “vomit comet,” the plane will head to its own airspace over the Gulf of Mexico and make roughly 30 parabolic maneuvers — picture a roller coaster pattern — that result in brief periods of hypergravity and then weightlessness.

Scotti and four other fliers will have some fun during the first few parabolas, doing midair somersaults and attempting not to slam into the plane’s padded insides as they adjust to the surreal environment.

But then it’s down to business, with their focus turning to “nanofoam” synthesis experiments.

A theory exists that these substances, when created in a microgravity environment, have antimicrobial properties. That’s significant because the foams could be used in biomedical implants, which could potentially promote tissue regrowth without the risk of infection.

The team hopes its experiment will later be done on the International Space Station.

“In our critique, (NASA) said the strength of our experiment is that there’s a lot of research pending the results of initial research, and our research is that initial research,” Scotti said.

It’s an opportunity Scotti never dreamed of when, one summer night in 2010, she casually mentioned to her husband, Anthony, she was thinking about finishing her education.

“He said, ‘well, why don’t you?’” said Scotti, a West Chicago High School graduate.

One of the first classes the math major took was astronomy, one of her passions. She excelled and took to heart associate professor Bhasker Moorthy’s talk on NASA’s undergraduate research opportunities.

“I noticed her work ethic right away, and she excelled in every aspect of the course,” Moorthy said.

Scotti happened upon NASA’s Community College Aerospace Scholars program. She was one of 180 students selected, and the only one from Illinois. She spent the summer independently planning a detailed mission to Mars.

Her work earned her one of 48 spots in an on-site program at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., where she spent three days in November developing a prototype Mars rover and presenting the project to NASA engineers.

Scotti believes the experiences and networking have prepared her for the work she’ll have to do leading up to her microgravity flight.

She’s also excited for the outreach required of each team member. She and her husband, who’s on the team’s ground crew, are working with Triple Threat Mentoring to increase interest in math and science among at-risk youth on the east side of Aurora.

Though she transferred to Northwestern, Scotti will stay at Harper to take an ethics class online and conduct the control experiments needed to compare the data that will be compiled on the plane. She’ll soon meet with the chemistry department to set it up.

“What Krysti is doing would be impressive coming from any student at any college in the country,” Moorthy said. “I think it shows that research can and should be done at community colleges.”

Scotti agrees, and said her time at Harper helped put her on a path she hopes will lead to a Ph.D program in math and physics at California Technical Institute.

“I almost don’t have time to be excited right now because there’s so much going on,” Scotti said. “But I’m loving every minute of it.”

Article source: http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20111230/news/712309771

College Football 2011: Get Your Bowling Shoes On

Oregon’s fantastic uniform for the Rose Bowl

NEW YORK (TheStreet) — As we move into the meat of the college football bowl season (not to slight the earlier games; every bowl game is a treat; we just can’t cover them all), it’s time to wonder about a few things in college football.

First, have you noticed how there is not one college football game on New Year’s Day this season? The holiday falls on a Sunday, yes, but regardless, New Year’s Day was always the domain of college football.

The reason why? Week 16 of the NFL season, and the television deciders wouldn’t want the two beloved institutions to compete with each other for viewers anyway. It’s not to say it’s not better for fans — it is. But it’s another tradition gone by the wayside.

Another quasi tradition that I’m wondering about is this insistence on playing the national championship game on a Monday night: LSU and Alabama will meet on Monday, Jan. 9.

This is college football. College football is all about Saturdays. Can you imagine the day we could have, with College Football Gameday starting at 6 a.m. and the national championship kicking off at, I don’t know, 9:58 p.m. ET or something? It would rival the Super Bowl from a marketing and just plain fun standpoint.

Let’s face it, the fans who get the most excited about the BCS title game are those of the two teams playing in the game. It’s similar with the NCAA basketball tournament, when you get to the final game. The first few rounds of course are awesome, when more people have a rooting interest.

But move the games to a Saturday night? Wow, then they become events. It’s something that, uh, ESPN and the BCS should discuss. Just a thought.

Now, on to the games. We have a cople of dandies — Oregon vs. Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl and Stanford vs. Oklahoma State in the Fiesta Bowl. The College Football Corner will return next Friday to preview LSU-Alabama.

Article source: http://www.thestreet.com/story/11357863/1/college-football-2011-get-your-bowling-shoes-on.html?cm_ven=RSSFeed

College Football Bowl Preview: Compelling Matchups, Dead Ahead

Enlarge Steve Dykes/Getty Images

Quarterback Darron Thomas of the Oregon Ducks (right) threw for 30 touchdowns with only 6 interceptions this season. The Ducks beat UCLA in the Pac-12 Championship to earn a spot in the Rose Bowl, where they’ll face Wisconsin.

Steve Dykes/Getty Images

Quarterback Darron Thomas of the Oregon Ducks (right) threw for 30 touchdowns with only 6 interceptions this season. The Ducks beat UCLA in the Pac-12 Championship to earn a spot in the Rose Bowl, where they’ll face Wisconsin.

College football is set to enter its final week, and that means the biggest bowl games are coming up. This weekend will see teams such as Auburn, Oklahoma and Georgia Tech in action. And the first week of 2012 will feature marquee matchups like Oregon vs. Wisconsin, and Oklahoma State against Stanford.

Talking about the bowl season with Morning Edition guest host Linda Wertheimer in an interview for Monday’s show, NPR’s Mike Pesca says he’ll be paying particular attention to several upcoming games, including Penn State vs. Houston, and Georgia vs. Michigan State.

“Houston has an amazing offense,” Pesca says. “They average over 60 yards a game. And they’re scoring about 50 points a game. It is a juggernaut. Of course, these numbers were put up against such teams as the North Texas Mean Green.”

And on Monday, Jan. 2, Houston’s impressive offense will meet Penn State’s stout defense.

In the 2011 season, Penn State’s defense has allowed opponents “only 15 points a game — one of the best defenses in the country,” Pesca says. “For all the flaws of the bowl system, when you get two teams of such differing types playing against each other, it can be interesting.”

Pesca says he’ll also watch the Outback Bowl at 1 p.m. ET Monday, which pits Michigan State against Georgia, “just because I think the teams are good, and a little underrated.”

Both of those teams finished the season with 10-3 records, having lost in their conference championship games — Michigan State to Wisconsin, and Georgia to No. 1 LSU.

For a complete rundown of this season’s bowl games, visit ESPN, which is airing many of the games, or if you prefer a reverse-chronological view, CBS can help. If you want a schedule that’s easy to look at on your phone, the Flickr user “encouragement” has posted an image of the 2011-2012 bowl games.

The Rose Bowl will be played at 5 p.m. ET Monday, matching two offensive-minded teams in Oregon against Wisconsin.

“Oregon does it a lot of ways,” Pesca says. “They’re competent through the air. They have an excellent ground game. And Wisconsin, as Wisconsin usually does, really can pound the ball. And by ‘ball,’ I mean their running back, Montee Ball. He’s a monster on the ground.”

In terms of history, Pesca gives Wisconsin a slight edge — Oregon hasn’t won the Rose Bowl since 1917, he says.

But once the teams take the field, Pesca says, “perhaps the Oregon offense will have a little easier time with the Wisconsin defense than vice-versa.”

Also Monday, the unofficial “Urban Meyer Bowl” kicks off at 1 p.m., when the coach’s former team, Florida, meets his squad-in-waiting, Ohio State, in the Gator Bowl.

And when the Fiesta Bowl kicks off at 8:30 p.m. ET on the same day, fans will see one team that missed out on the BCS title game, in 11-1 Oklahoma State, and one player that several NFL teams are hoping they don’t miss in the next draft: quarterback Andrew Luck, of 11-1 Stanford.

Oklahoma State has ridden its high-powered offense to a No. 3 ranking, Pesca says, while Stanford has relied on Luck, and a strong defense, to rise to No. 4 in the country.

“So, other than the national championship game, just in terms of rankings, this is the best possible matchup you could get,” he says. “And it should be very intriguing.”

And part of the draw will be to see how Luck performs in his final college game.

“He’s not quite Peyton Manning — I mean, he’s only 21, 22 years old,” Pesca says. “But he’s a master, and he’s a craftsman out there on the field. I will definitely be tuning in.”

The much-maligned BCS system uses several criteria to determine the top six teams — and which two schools should compete for the BCS title. Part of its formula is based on the USA Today Coaches’ Poll.

If you have time before watching your next game, and you’re curious about how coaches rated their own school — and, more interestingly, those from rival conferences — you can check out a sortable grid of the coaches’ final ballots over at USA Today.

Article source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/12/30/144491955/college-football-bowl-preview-compelling-matchups-dead-ahead?ft=1&f=1003

University Of Miami Will Return $83K In Former Booster Donations

The University of Miami will return $83,000 in donations it received from Nevin Shapiro, a former booster, who was incarcerated for his role in running a $930 million Ponzi scheme.

As we reported in August, Shapiro revealed that he gave Miami players “cash, threw parties for them, hooked them up with prostitutes, entertained them at night clubs and let them use his cars.” Many of the gifts were impermissible under NCAA rules. The NCAA launched an investigation and suspended eight players, including starting quarterback Jacory Harris. The university may still face sanctions.

The AP reports UM reached a deal with a bankruptcy trustee who will hand a part of that money to the ponzi scheme victims.

The Miami Herald points out the interesting part of the story: The agreement means former Miami players won’t have to talk about what the gifts they received from Shapiro.

The Herald explains:

“The deal eliminates the likelihood of former Hurricane players having to disclose under oath potentially incriminating information about improper gifts received from Shapiro — testimony that might have further embarrassed the university.

“As for the money UM is paying, $55,610 will be shared among victims of Shapiro’s Ponzi scheme and the remaining $27,390 will go the firm Tabas Freedman, which represents bankruptcy trustee Joel Tabas.The settlement must be approved by a bankruptcy court judge, Laurel Isicoff, Feb. 27 in downtown Miami, “but I see no reason why it wouldn’t be approved,” said Gary Freedman, who is representing Tabas.”

Article source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/12/30/144487187/university-of-miami-will-return-83k-in-former-booster-donations?ft=1&f=1001

Metairie man wanted in kidnapping, sexual battery of woman

St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies are searching for a man they say kidnapped and sexually assaulted a woman. Rodolfo Aguiar-Estrada, 54, of Metairie, is wanted on charges of second-degree battery, oral sexual battery and second-degree kidnapping.

Rodolfo Aguiar-Estrada

At about 1:31 a.m. on Thursday, St. John deputies responded to the Ruddock exit of Interstate 55 for a report of a woman requesting help from a passerby. The 37-year-old Metairie woman told deputies she was in Kenner when a man driving a dark Chevrolet pickup truck asked if she needed a ride. She accepted his offer, she told authorities, but became concerned when he did not drive to where she had asked to go.

The woman asked to be let out of the truck, but the driver refused and continued driving to the Ruddock exit. The woman managed to escape when the driver stopped at an intersection, said Capt. Dane Clement, Sheriff’s Office spokesman.

The woman said the driver hit her, fondled her and forced her to engage in sexual acts, according to authorities.

The woman was transported to River Parishes Hospital in LaPlace, where she was treated for minor injuries to her hands and face and released.

As a result of the investigation, detectives developed Aguiar-Estrada as a suspect and put his photograph in a six-man photographic lineup. The woman identified Aguiar-Estrada and detectives obtained an arrest warrant.

Clement said deputies attempted to locate Aguiar-Estrada on Thursday without success. Detectives are asking anyone knowing the whereabouts of Aguiar-Estrada to call Crimestoppers at 504.822.1111 or the St. John Sheriff’s Office at 985.652.6338.

•••••••

Jennifer Boquet can be reached at jboquet@timespicayune.com or 985.652.0952.

Article source: http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2011/12/metairie_man_wanted_in_kidnapp.html

First Person: Getting My Kids Through College, Without Breaking the Bank

*Note: This was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Do you have a personal finance story that you’d like to share? Sign up with the Yahoo! Contributor Network to start publishing your own finance articles.

This year, my two oldest are heading off to college. Aside from wrapping myself up in a blanket of tearful, empty nest nostalgia, I have been doing a lot of financial planning. After the college applications and campus tours, I got a crash course on what it takes today’s youth to make it through four years of higher learning financially, and (let me tell you) it is not cheap. Once I finished hyperventilating, and after I was done using the cost breakdown as a makeshift fan, I took a pragmatic approach to help my twins (and me) make it through the next four years of life without having to live on Top Ramen alone.

My Rule

Years ago, I made the decision that no one in my house gets a free ride. My girls have to pay their way upfront. Then, if they passed a class with a B or better, I reimburse them. Essentially, I run my family like most corporations run their tuition reimbursement plans. If they don’t pass a class, they assume 100-percent of the financial burden. I call that, “an incentive.” If they remain studious and responsible, they graduate without student loan debt the size of Mt. Everest. In the meantime, the girls are forced to live on a budget and be responsible with (and for) every dime they have. If you ask me, it’s a win/win.

However, I understand that my “policy,” while rational, does not keep my daughters safe from all of the financial pitfalls associated with college. After all, grants, loans and scholarships are not always a sure fire way to foot all of the upfront costs. Because of that, the twins and I made a list of additives and alternatives.

The obvious solutions

Naturally, the girls are applying for as many grants and scholarships as possible. We plan on filling out the FAFSA in January in order to maximize grant and student loan opportunities. We contacted several schools and got a list of scholarships they girls can apply to almost any state school. We also requested lists of scholarships exclusive to specific campuses they are interested in attending.

These opportunities are based on how much I make each year. If they don’t qualify for a lot of grants or student loans from a federal level, they will apply for student loans from private banking institutions. The cost of college each year, per kid? Roughly $10,000 (or $20,000) if you are me. Once basic grants and scholarships are applied, my out-of-pocket contribution will be about half of that. To prepare, I began setting aside $400 each month, for the past two years. As it stands, my nest egg is enough to fulfill my promise.

Insider tip: The best grants and scholarships are awarded to the students with the best essays. If you want to make sure your child has a shot-in-you-know-what of getting those high dollar awards, I suggest getting them a writing tutor. I took out an ad at a nearby campus for a writing graduate student, and found some great low-cost help. I paid $12 an hour for both girls to get tutoring, three hours per week.

The not so obvious solutions

College prep classes. Many high schools offer dual credit courses. These courses give both high school and college credit, eliminating the need for kids to take the class as college freshman (when they have to pay for it). These classes are completely free, but testing for the credit at the end might cost a few dollars. My daughters took several of these courses in both their junior and senior years. We estimate that this saved us about $700. For these classes, I only had to pay $35 per class in testing fees, per child. Ultimately, this reduces my first annual reimbursement contribution by 20 percent.

CLEP (College Level Examination Program). These tests allow a student to test out of certain subjects for a fraction of the cost of the course itself. I purchased a book of practice exams and the tests for a little under $500 for three core courses. If they pass, my will save them nearly $2,000 in college expenses. This reduces my first year of out-of-pocket reimbursement expenses by 50 percent.

On campus jobs. No matter where my daughters go to school, they will be living on campus. College campuses offer many different on campus jobs that help students offset expenses for room, board and books. Have your child look into these from the moment they are accepted into a particular college. The sooner they apply the better. This doesn’t impact my contribution one way or another, but it is a smart way to keep your college student busy, productive and learning to live on a budget.

Books. My girls are also looking into book rental programs and downloadable college books to their Nooks for pennies on the dollar, saving them a bundle compared to buying brand new (or even used books). I will reimburse them the cost of any book, along with a passed class, so the savings is passed on to me.

Five-year graduate degree programs. Today, many colleges offer graduate course work to undergrads, allowing top-notch students to get a graduate degree in as little as five years, instead of seven or eight. The coursework is heavy and intensive, but for my two business majors, it reduces the overall cost of school, since it reduces the amount of time they attend and offers overlapping coursework for dual credit. Since tuition changes annually, it’s hard to put an exact dollar amount on the savings (I don’t have a crystal ball) but even at an estimated $10,000 a year, it could be as much as $20,000 in savings to my children and to me.

Having a no-nonsense plan to help my girls through college was necessary. How do you plan to help your youngster through the college years?

Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/first-person-getting-kids-college-without-breaking-bank-180823254.html

Lessons from famous college dropouts

Editor’s note: Paul Schmitz is the author of “Everyone Leads: Building Leadership from the Community Up” and CEO of Public Allies, a nonprofit that advances new leadership to strengthen communities and encourage civic participation.

(CNN) — A college degree can be an important gateway to employment, a career and a better standard of living. But a college degree does not equate to someone’s level of intelligence or talent. For those seeking the best workers or leaders, there is a plethora of intelligent, inventive people without degrees who should not be overlooked.

Recognizing this does not negate the importance of a college education — the intellectual knowledge, access to a wide array of subjects and experience gained on a college campus can be transformative. Studies demonstrate clearly that without a college degree, you will likely earn less, be more liable to be unemployed and have fewer opportunities for career advancement.

The challenge is that access to college has become more limited. At a time when degrees are so important to income potential, they are going increasingly to privileged and affluent young people. As the 2010 book “Rewarding Strivers” points out, among those who scored in the highest quartile of a national standardized test, those from affluent families were twice as likely to attend college as those from poorer families.

So a lot of talent goes unrecognized and undeveloped. And those without college degrees aren’t necessarily less driven or intelligent than those with degrees. Michael Ellsberg, author of “The Education of Millionaires,” argued in The New York Times recently that the skills of entrepreneurs are not learned “crouched over a desk studying for multiple-choice exams.” Indeed, years ago Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance created a research-based entrepreneurship test that deducts a substantial number of points if you were a high achiever in school.

This is what we have found at Public Allies over the past two decades. We have worked with thousands of young adults without college degrees and have seen many achieve incredible success (with many eventually completing degrees). We’ve seen a single mom in community college become a White House lawyer, a former gang member create a youth development organization and a woman raised in foster care work for a foundation reforming foster care systems.

I share these and many other stories in my book, “Everyone Leads.” When we equate talent, competence and character with credentials, we block a lot of superstar leaders our businesses, communities and country need.

Here are examples of other superstars who did not complete college on their rise to the top:

– We all know the story of Steve Jobs, who dropped out of Reed College. Since the days of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison, many business leaders got their starts without the benefit of degrees, including Larry Ellison of Oracle, Bill Gates and Paul Allen of Microsoft, Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz of Facebook, Michael Dell of Dell Computers, Brian Dunn of Best Buy, Anna Wintour of Vogue, Barry Diller of IAC, John Mackey of Whole Foods, David Geffen, Ralph Lauren and Ted Turner.

– David Plouffe, senior advisor to President Barack Obama and architect of his innovative and historically unprecedented campaign, dropped out of the University of Delaware to work in politics (returning to complete his degree in 2010). President George W. Bush’s top adviser, Karl Rove, and John McCain’s 2008 campaign manager, Steve Schmidt, also lacked degrees.

– Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin, dropped out of Marquette University. He is joined by Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona, Gov. Gary Herbert of Utah, U.S. Sen. Mark Begich of Alaska and 33 members of the U.S. House of Representatives.

– Maya Angelou has received many honorary doctorates but never attended college to learn her craft. She’s in good company with many other great American writers, such as Gore Vidal, August Wilson, Mark Twain, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Robert Frost, Joseph Brodsky and Harper Lee.

– Woody Allen is loved by intellectuals for his philosophical films, but he did not gain his style on a campus, having flunked out of City College of New York. Other Oscar winners without degrees include Clint Eastwood, James Cameron, Robert Redford, Michael Moore, Sidney Pollack, George Clooney, Hillary Swank, Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Steven Spielberg (who completed a degree in 2002).

– Oprah Winfrey left Tennessee State University in 1976 to begin her career in media (completing her degree in 1986). Top talkers without degrees include Larry King, Ellen DeGeneres, Jimmy Kimmel, Joy Behar, Rosie O’Donnell and conservative talkers Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity.

– Brian Williams attended three schools and completed 18 undergraduate credits before working his way to NBC News anchor. Peter Jennings, Walter Cronkite and John Chancellor were also anchors without degrees. And many reporters and columnists never completed college, including Nina Totenberg of NPR, Carl Bernstein of The Washington Post and former New York Times columnist and wordsmith William Safire.

– Alicia Keys has made a name for herself as a singer, songwriter and political activist. She joins an exclusive club of singer/activists without degrees that includes Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Steve Earle and Jon Bon Jovi.

The point of this list is not to disparage higher education — it is still the best pathway to success. But imagine if venture capitalists had denied Steve Jobs or Bill Gates support because their resumes lacked a diploma, or if producers had denied Oprah Winfrey a television show because she had not completed her degree.

We need to make college more accessible to smart people from all backgrounds, while also being careful not to judge talent, character or competence primarily by higher education credentials. Our nation should be a ladder of opportunity for the best talent, regardless of background.

Follow @CNNOpinion on Twitter.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Paul Schmitz.

Article source: http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/30/opinion/schmitz-college/index.html?section=cnn_latest